Birthings…

When we chose our first home-birth midwife, we had to commute 4 hours each way, with a toddler in-tow, for appointments. We then temporarily moved to the town where our midwife lived for several weeks surrounding the birth to get the care we wanted… NEEDED. When we chose our second home-birth midwife, we moved to the town where she lives, permanently. When we chose our third home-birth midwife, it took juggling 3 midwives’ schedules to keep us covered, as they were stretched by the demand of so many women birthing at home the same month. May YHWH bless all midwives!

EVERY woman should have access to these extraordinary, supportive women who have astounding wisdom from years of experience in in-depth, holistic fertility & perinatal care.

“The mortality rate per 1,000 births was 0.35 in the home birth group, 0.57 in hospital births attended by midwives, and 0.64 among those attended by physicians, according to the study. ”
Full article here:
​http://health.usnews.com/health-news/family-health/womens-health/articles/2009/08/31/home-birth-with-midwife-as-safe-as-hospital-birth
Hmm… nearly triple the chance of death (not just damage– DEATH!) with an OBGYN!

When we’re as wealthy financially as we are in other areas, I want to become this avenue of healing…
before my grandchildren are born!
Awesome opportunities for training all around me… soon…

We All Want Peace*

Everybody’s running around with two fingers up– if they aren’t busy lifting just one finger at the driver that just cut ’em off. Even so, that driver really just wants peace. We want to know that we’re going to get to work on time, that rent will be paid, that our electricity won’t be shut off, and that we’ll be able to put gas in that car so we can do it again tomorrow. (I use “we” loosely, here– different folks have different struggles) At the core of our beings, we want to feel “secure,” knowing that we’re protected from hunger, cold, and loneliness.  We want peace.
What’s funny is that our language doesn’t tell us what peace is just by looking at the word. It’s kind of a nebulous “good thing” out there somewhere that nobody seems to have (unless they happen to smell like weed, and even then, it’s only for as long as the high lasts).

Shabbat Shalom!

A few thousand years ago, and still today in some places, the word for peace was a real, concrete picture of that nebulous thing we all want. Originally, the Scriptural, Hebrew word was “Shalom,” spelled “Shin-Lamed-Vav-Mem.” (second word in the pic)

The Shin is the picture of the two front Teeth. Lamed is a picture of the Shepherd’s Staff. Vav is the Tent Peg, and Mem is Water. The Teeth is an image of protection and defense. The Shepherd’s Staff provides guidance and direction, pointing the way out for the sheep to find everything they need. The Tent Peg is the picture of securing or “nailing down.” Water is our source of life. Shalom is defined in Jeff Benner’s Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible , word #2845, “Complete: Made whole or complete by adding or subtracting. ‘To be in a state of wholeness. Also to restore or make right through payment or restitution. ‘A state of being whole, complete, or full. Also an offering of restitution or payment. ‘A greeting as a desire for completeness to another.”
Shalom is “The protection of the Shepherd, nailing down the water.” We are at peace when we are protected and provided for by our Creator, and when we are made “complete.” In order to be “complete,” we need air, water, food, and shelter. Without land to grow food on, we are incomplete, and the land is incomplete without the humble people who care for it, watching over it with sensitivity to see that seeds sprout in it. Finding those humble people gives the rest of that picture of completeness– we’re no longer lonely 🙂

*Originally posted January 28, 2010 on my old blogsite

Ain’t Life Traumatic?!

Life hurts. Whether you’ve been in a car wreck, in an abusive relationship, through emotional trauma, took a few too many hits in sporting events, poisoned yourself with city air pollution, toxic houses, pharmaceutical medications, or what-have-you, it hurts like the dickens.
There are a lot of traumatic events I’ve been spared, and I’m SO thankful for that!
I have experienced all of the above, and, due to the amount of toxins I’ve been exposed to, I can’t use pharmaceutical medications AT ALL anymore– they only make me feel worse now.
SO– there’s a bright side to all of that 😀
I don’t have to live in incessant pain!
I have a list of natural tools that I keep in my medicine cabinet that keep my body nice and happy and healing– without drugs.
Top of that list is Arnica. It’s a beautiful little flower Designed to work great as a homeopathic remedy for trauma of all kinds.
I use potencies as follows:
For minor boo-boo’s, 30X or 6C… or let the kid shake it off– no biggie.
For something that’s ‘gonna leave a mark, 30C
For something that’s ‘gonna leave a mark for a week or more, 200C
For something that’s likely to send us to the ER if it doesn’t look better fast (or if we just got out of the ER), 1M. So far, we’ve been well-blessed, and the Arnica 1M has worked beautifully on every major injury we’ve had, and, with 4 kids, we haven’t been there in about 8 years. The 1M is also good if  having flash-backs or insomnia or other psychological repercussions from trauma, or if the trauma is very old– great for that broken bone or torn ligament that never felt right again after it “healed.”
It’s a homeopathic medicine, which means it doesn’t operate on a substance basis, but rather on patterns left over in the water into which it was dissolved. That means two things:
A. It doesn’t interact with any kind of medication, which is great for people who are dependent on pharmaceutical medications.
B. We can’t use coffee or strong mint or tea tree oil or camphor or other strong smells when you use it, we can’t touch the medicine itself before you put it in our mouth, and we can’t store it at high temperatures or near electrical equipment or magnets. Any of these things can render the medicine ineffective– it messes up those patterns.
Arnica also comes in topical, gel form to put on bruises & help them to heal faster– a friend says it’s great for if you’re headed to Jamaica for your honeymoon and just banged your leg on the car door. I haven’t used it for that  specifically, but I have watched bruises disappear much more quickly than I’d expected using it… or sometimes not appear at all, if I got it on there fast enough 🙂
The key with this remedy is to take AS NEEDED. We use the LOWEST effective potency, and only take it when the symptoms come up. If the pain is getting better, we don’t take any more. If it starts to get worse or hits a stand-still at healing, we take another dose.
It’s the perfect “shell-shocked soldier” remedy. If I had my way, 1M Arnica would be standard-issue at the VA… But who am I?

Arnica isn’t the only tool in my basket, but it has been a vital one. For more on things that have been helpful for me personally, see my other posts. Arnica also doesn’t fit everyone’s trauma picture. Some people are better served by Aconitum or another remedy. Finding the remedy picture that fits the symptoms set is crucial. There are thousands of different homeopathic remedies made from natural substances, each of which has a unique “personality” for helping “fine tune” different aspects of health that can be “knocked off-course.” I’ve loved “fine tuning” in my own home to find the beautiful people inside those “rough spots” in life.

As with all of my “non-medical, non-advice”, I’m no doctor or pharmacist, which means that I’m not licensed to treat, cure, prevent, heal, or otherwise mitigate any disease. It also means that nobody paid off the FDA to approve the stuff I use. So do your own research, and find what works for you 🙂

For folks interested in more info on the history of homeopathic medicine, here’s a link to more info:
http://www.homeopathic.com/Articles/History

Who Owns The House?

Hmmm… now this makes some sense. In an Ancient Hebrew wedding ceremony, the prospective groom is required to delineate what he is willing to give for and to his prospective bride in a Ketubah  (written marriage agreement). Four things were required: Food, Clothing, Shelter, and Marital Rights, plus it might include other, optional things, along with a bride price, paid to her father, all of which she had to approve before agreeing to marry him. Makes sense. He works for her (someone he values enough to work for), she owns his house. Security, in exchange for working for him and bearing his children. In that culture, at that time, a woman had more security than many women do now, in some ways. At least then, in that culture, he had to be willing to acknowledge that she was worth something, and give her a place to live, sustenance, and pleasure. Too many women don’t even get a ring now-a-days …and call it “liberated.”

Can you picture a girl now-a-days saying, “Um, yeah, I like you and all, but I need a house, and if you don’t feed me, clothe me, and offer yourself to me on a regular basis, I’ll have grounds for divorce, and I want it all in writing, and witnessed by my father before I’ll marry you.” Somewhere along the line, women got gypped! …oh, wait a minute… that would be in reference to gypsies, wouldn’t it… which might be closer to the ancient culture than to the modern (dunno– haven’t studied gypsy culture intensively). ‘Gotta watch my language LOL!

The Almighty Breast

“The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.” — William Ross Wallace

As a young woman, reared in modern Christendom, I was encouraged to pursue college and a career… in fact, that was the name of the 18-30 yr olds’ Sunday School class in the church where I grew up. Nothing wrong with college or a career… but I was definitely discouraged from thinking about marriage or children… and yet, that’s where the majority of my spiritual growth has been– in the experience of parenting alongside my husband.  Neither of us is perfect, but we each have a unique capacity to represent masculine and feminine attributes of the One, Indescribable, Incomprehensible, Almighty. Neither of us can represent that Power fully, and yet, even the shadow of it  that we are is incomplete without the “other half.”

I remember nursing my first baby, and listening to the screaming as I desperately tried to get the nipple into the open mouth… a nightmare that lasted for months… but one of the best lessons in how much El Shaddai (“Powerful Breast”, usually mistranslated “God Almighty”) loves us, and wants to give us the best and most perfect food… while we, at times, scream for it, and refuse to “latch on.”

We’ve found healing for the decline in happy marriages and parenting in these beautiful pictures in the Original Language. From Ancient Intimacy, through the words for Mother and Father and on to Wrapping our children securely…there are extraordinary societal healing implications…

To begin, the picture of Ancient Intimacy:

Remember that word ‘know’ where the Bible’s euphemism talks about sex? It’s more than a euphemism. It’s an ancient picture of what intimacy is, whether between a husband and wife, or between friends & family, or between humanity and the Designer.
Yep– There’s an Ancient Hebrew pictograph for that!

Yud-Dalet-Ayin
Yud: The Hand / Arm (Work, Make, Throw)
Dalet: Tent Door (Movement Back & Forth, Dangle)
Ayin: The Eye (Sensitivity, Sight, Insight, Vision)
To “Know” is to Work toward Movement Back & Forth with Sensitivity, Insight, and Vision.
There’s a ‘sweet spot’… a ‘knowing’ that only comes with an extraordinarily intimate relationship. Casual sex made ‘safe’ by modern interruptions cannot replace the intense depth of intimacy in a love where both parties play by Natural Laws that keep themselves and their offspring safe and healthy.
In the same way, a cursory study of the Scriptures can never replace the intimacy of ‘knowing’ the Original Gift of Teaching and Instruction.
This is real intimacy,  in intercourse, friendships, and in our relationship with the Designer: both parties working toward that “sweet spot” where the door opens and there is Sensitivity, Vision and Insight.

When we go back to these original pictures, we find foundations for building healing…

“If the foundations are destroyed,
         What can the righteous do?” –Psalm 11:3

BTW– I’m not the expert on the pictographs. For more information, see
ancient-hebrew.org/
or
www.youtube.com/user/ancienthebreworg
Comments/Ratings Always Welcome 🙂

 

Envisioning Hope for Healing

We all walk learning… but not all of us walk healing.  Why is that? Do we maybe get trapped in despair, not hoping it could be possible? Even the modern medical community knows that if someone on the edge of death has hope, and chooses to live, they’ve got a good shot at it, and that if they don’t, they’re probably going to go soon. Maybe that dramatic, “I call heaven and earth to witness with you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving YHWH your God, by hearing and guarding His voice…”**  is applicable in more scenarios than we’ve given it credit for…

Seems like there’s a shortage of hope lately, but “having hope” may be a lot more  of a “just do it” thing than a “got it / don’t got it” thing…
Here’s the pictograph for one of the words translated *Hope* in Scripture:

Tav-Quph-Vav-Hey
Tav is the crossed sticks. It is the symbol for the far-off mark toward which a farmer tills so as to plow a straight line.
Quoph is the sun on the horizon, either rising or setting, signifying the passage of time, or continuing cycles.
Vav is the tent peg, nailing down or securing.
Hey is the man with his arms upraised in awe, saying “Wow, LOOK!”
The AHLB defines it as both “A cord used for binding” and “Held back, waiting for something.”
In the Vav you can see the securing, and the time waiting in the Quph, and the Hey showing the results. The Tav is the goal against which the restraint is directed.
All kinds of beautiful levels of meaning here– like the hope of a future with a spouse one day giving strength for the restraint to wait for the time when that hope becomes reality. (Old-fashioned notion, I know, but beautiful, nonetheless)
I also see a “visualize your hopes” picture. We envision the “mark” (Tav) toward which we “plow,” until the “time” (Quph) when it is “secured” (Vav) and we can “stand in awe” (Hey) of the realized hope.

Hope is a choice to keep our feet on the path toward the goal.
May Hope be secured as we plow toward it in the here-and-now.

*Strong’s # 8615 and AHLB# 1420-A-i. Taken from Job 17:15:

“Where then is my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it?”

**Deuteronomy 30:19-20a

Ancient Pictures of Healing, and Solutions for Peace

Caution: Find the place where you want nothing more than Truth and Peace, or do the world a favor, and don’t read:

I’m not one of those folks who can watch a news program about someone getting hurt and walk away and go on about my day, unaffected. I am physically ill when I see suffering– my body processes other people’s trauma. I wouldn’t call me an empath, necessarily, but if there were such a thing, I might be a half-breed LOL! So when I see folks being hurt in protests on Wall Street, and hurt in wars overseas and hurt over things that really shouldn’t matter… or even if they do matter… I want to fix it– to make it right– to make PEACE(see definition here). Empath or not, maybe there are a lot of other folks out there who want the same thing… and maybe we can work together to help heal each other… Maybe some illnesses aren’t our fault, or our parents’ fault. Maybe some hurts, illnesses, and wars are here only for the purpose of motivating us to find the Source of healing.

Ancient quarrels have built modern wars… or so we’re taught in our various religious schools and through the media… but what if there were more modern reasons why these wars continue? What if those same ancient stories about ancient struggles could contain pictures of how to resolve these modern conflicts, and we’ve all been programmed to ignore them?

To clarify:

I’m not Muslim, not Jewish, not Christian, and not Atheist.

Clear as mud, right? Good– that’s about where I’m at, too LOL!

I’m not interested in starting up arguments, but boy, I’d love to see some comparisons of territories as described in Torah (first 5 books of the Bible), and means of acquisition from the current population occupying those territories as described there, too…

I see pictures of Jacob giving Essau gifts of material wealth– pottage for the birthright, and cattle & sheep when he comes back to his father’s house in TaNaK (Original / “Old” Testament) after having been exiled at Laban’s house. Then I see in Sefer HaYashar (Jewish history book, thought to have been written by Joshua after the death of Moses) where, after their father, Isaac’s death, Jacob also gives Essau a choice between all of the material wealth of their father’s estate, and the land. Essau chose the material goods, and left Jacob with the land. Then Essau goes off happily to Mt. Seir. So somebody educate me on modern history– did the Muslim people ever get any sheep & goats & cattle & money & stuff in 1948? Is the UN the “power” / god / elohim of the Promised Land?  If there was payment of any sort, did it really go to the people, or did it wind up going to governments / “powers”  (the same word, “elohim”, translated “gods” in the original text)? I’m seeing a distinct picture of Jacob as not wanting to be a man  of war –wanting to resolve this thing peacefully, without anyone getting killed– and of Essau choosing, of his own accord, to live in Mt. Seir. No war necessary. In fact, war averted!  Jacob comes home from exile with his family, and meets Essau with a bunch of his guys, ready to do battle, but in stead of ending in bloodshed, Jacob sends droves of cattle ahead of him as gifts for Essau, bows down to the ground before him, and the brothers embrace, and part on friendly terms. I want to know what the modern equivalent of those droves of sheep & cattle are,? …and how Israel can give them to the Arab nations? …not the governments / “powers” / idols, mind you– the people!

Where is Mt. Seir??? According to Google maps, it’s the Mt. of Olives, but that would put it North of Mt. Zion by modern geography and understanding of which mountain is which. Is there another potential location for one or both of these mountains? –’cause that doesn’t fit with the way I’m reading the text: the children of Israel were told to turn Northward to get out of Essau’s territory.
Found this note:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hala-%27l_Badr
That would put Mt Seir / Sainai well-South of Mt Zion, but finding a way for Essau to be able to live in that territory happily is another story… Maybe a place for this tool:
www.thoughts.com/Hojasanan/blog/cultivating-fulfillment–547896/
… but then there’s still the issue of payment– how do we get payment out of the hands of oil gods and warmongers, and into the hands of the Arab people (read, Essau) who have occupied the land in Jacob’s absence, so that both sides can occupy their territories in peace???

Joshua / Yehoshua 1:5
“No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you.”
These words were spoken to Joshua as he was being sent out to abolish human sacrifice in the land. Deuteronomy / Devarim chapter 2 describes, in detail, which places were not their responsibility. I don’t understand the directions about turning Northward, with the current “Mt Seir” being north of the current “Mt. Zion” (two names for the same mountain) from what I can see on Google maps. Maybe some of my scholar friends out there could help me out with that… or maybe we’ve been taught wrong (dare I say, “yet again…”?)
I’m very interested in the possibility… probability that all of the answers to today’s Middle Eastern issues (and the subsequent financial and social issues exacerbated, or maybe even caused by those issues) are already provided in TaNaK and other history books / Sacred Texts referenced in it… I realize it’s complicated, and that money and “powers”/ gods and incessant wounds get in the way, but I’d love to get a more firm grasp on these things. I have some theories, but nothing workable… yet… at least not with the resources I have available to me right at the moment… which is why I’m writing. Maybe someone else out there can figure it out from here…

Happy Hearts…And Other Body Parts…

We have such convenient methods of poisoning ourselves now-a-days! We can walk downtown and breathe in an array of chemicals from car fumes to cigarette smoke to somebody’s dryer sheet to cheap perfume. On top of all this, we are encouraged at every turn to attempt to sustain ourselves (failing miserably) on miscellaneous toxins marketed to us as “food.”
Cheese slices that come pre-sliced in packages usually aren’t food: reading the label, you’ll find hydrogenated oil (something akin to biodiesel). Those cookies that come with an expiration date of a few years down the road: if it won’t mold, it won’t break down in your body, either. Hot dogs… EEEW!!!! It’s the left-over nasty after the real meat was used up, and mixed with chemicals and miscellaneous additives to make us imagine it were edible!
So… we get to the doctor’s office a few decades later, and find out that we’re headed toward a pretty miserable existence if we don’t change some things… as a friend so eloquently put it, “been taking the easy way.. can’t go there anymore. time to cook..”
Good plan 🙂 Home-made takes more time, but well-worth it! Real, hormone-free cheese from your neighbor’s cow isn’t so bad– it’s the processed stuff in the little plastic wrappers that gets you; home-made cookies aren’t horrible– especially if they’re made with honey or date powder in stead of sugar, and whole-grain, organic spelt flour in stead of bleached wheat (yes, they can still taste like cookies… they can also turn out seriously wrong– Hubby can attest to that a few years ago). Roast a real turkey or a real chicken, and use 10 times the herbs that the recipes call for, and Real Salt in stead of bleached salt– more flavor than any chemical-laden frank, and SO good for us!
A “non-recipes” for folks who want to experiment:

Here’s fudge that calls for coconut oil– the same medium-chain fatty acids found in breastmilk– great stuff all-around: helps heal damaged spots nicely.
I mix up more-or-less equal parts coacoa powder, warm coconut oil, and honey, with a drop or two of apple cider vinegar and a pinch of Real Salt; pour it into a pie plate, and stick it in the fridge. An hour later, we cut it into thin slices, and have fudge!
One child can’t have the coacoa powder, so he gets the same recipe, but with tahini or almond butter substituted for the coacoa.

Sweet stuff, with all the antioxidant goodness and none of the chemicals or cane sugar.

The heart isn’t just about pumping blood… Visit this picture into the Ancient Hebrew mind– the perspective into which TaNaK was bithed… Don’t forget to come back, now!

<object width=”420″ height=”315″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/qy02bgZBAas?version=3&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0″></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param></object>

The toxins we experience in our daily world don’t just mess with the physical health. I’ve experienced the emotional / mental toxicity resultant from physical toxins. When we read Scripture in English, we’re reading an entirely different story sometimes. Looking at the Ancient Hebrew perspective of these body parts that we deal with is an extraordinary adventure in the mind-spirit-body connections. Our hearts, guts, kidneys, and other vital organs are vitally important not only to our physical well-being, but also to our spiritual health. Toxifying these vital organs toxifies our attitudes, emotions, and “gut instincts.” The flip side: Detoxing can not only heal us physically, but can be extraordinary in healing our spirit, outlook, philosophy, and “heart.”

Stop back by for more excerpts from my book-in-progress!

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you

Well-Rooted, Deep Healing

Our shallow, modern society is screaming for ROOTS!  Ever hear the expressions “rooted,” “deep,” and “roots” when nobody’s talking about plants? We all love these ideas– getting back to something “foundational,” “nourishing,” and “pervasive”… like comfrey 😉

We’re tending a garden, studying Ancient Hebrew, Drinking Ginger Tea, Eating Garlic, Onions, Beets, and Yams… and I think it’s all connected 🙂 We’ve moved a dozen or more times in the last decade or so. We’ve uprooted from the mythology we were brought up with, and are finding the Original Roots of the original Rabi Yashua. It’s not been a popular move, and changing cultures is never easy. No matter how good the change is, change still equals stress. I’m thinking that gardening– that Original Picture of “Perfect Life” in the Garden– and our root-rich diet may be medicinal for this spiritual and cultural “transplant.” I’m thankful for Ginger Root for digestive trouble (anybody ever had that when they’re stressed-out?), Garlic Root for warding off whatever bug is floating around (yes, it really does work– raw, diced garlic cloves, 3-4 X a day!), Onion Root Konji for warming cold tummies (thanks again, to my Chinese MD’s wife), Beet Root for eliminating uric acid from the lymph system, and Wild Yam Root for balancing hormones. Combine that with the level of sanity found nowhere outside a garden (they’ve done studies on that– touching dirt really is “grounding” LOL!), and the Ancient Roots in the pictographs we get to look at and learn from… I’m pretty thankful for roots of all sorts 🙂

Here are some of my favorite roots, and a brief introduction to their healing properties:
If you get information overload, take what you want now, and bookmark it for later 🙂
Comfrey Healing broken tissues of all sorts, soothing to broken skin, and can aid in healing broken bones. I’ve loved this one for rubbing the root-infused olive oil into the sprains and broken bones (less scratchy on the skin than the crushed leaves, though that works, too), and for salad greens and tea leaves. Yes, I’d steer clear of eating the root, and Russian Comfray internally, but the upright plant has never given me liver pains, where chemical toxins have, and certainly the topical applications have never been accused of anything but healing.
www.herbalremediesinfo.com/COMFREY.html
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail89.php

Ginger Great for digestion, nausea, cold tummy, or being out in the cold, and helps w/ circulation. I’ve done quarts of ginger tea and found wonderful, warming benefit from it for joint pains: a beautiful anti-inflammatory (pain reliever) 🙂 One word of caution on this one: if you’re pregnant, limit your ginger intake to a normal cup of tea a few times a day– small amounts can help w/ morning sickness, but high doses can stimulate contractions.
www.herbalremediesinfo.com/Ginger.html
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail27.php

Garlic Highly anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, antiviral, antifungal, great for heart health,  and promotes “friendly bacteria” in the guts. I’ve had wonderful results with killing all sorts of infections with this Natural Miracle.
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail128.php
www.herbalremediesinfo.com/GARLIC.html

Onion Similar properties to garlic (in the same family), and the juice from the greens can be used to draw toxins out through the skin, helping to heal infections.
www.herbalremediesinfo.com/Compresses.html

Chives Another member of the allum family (onions & garlic), and good for all the same purposes. The bigger plants are easier to work with, and so are more popular for medicinal usage when they’re available. If your back yard is crawling with chives in stead of garlic & onions, though, you’re good 🙂

Wild Yam Root / Bitter Yam Root My favorite anti-inflammatory herb of all time!!! GREAT for pain. I take a heaping tablespoon of the dried root every two hours ’till I don’t hurt any more. Warning, though: it’s not easy to get it down. Have a LOT of water handy: it’s like swallowing gravel. It’s also great for speeding up bm’s, so if you’re not needing that so much, you might like to take a bit of Zeolite or Bentonite clay with it. I’ve also used this to keep a pregnancy when I’d recently lost two. Bitter herbs and “more ancient varieties” of plants are higher in MSM, or “organic sulphur.” I’ve not found a real, reliable source for the sulphur content of various foods, and there is no USRDA on it, but it’s a natural pain killer, and it’s not in most of the “modern” foods in the grocery store at any useful level for killing pain. Once upon a time, it was these “bitter herbs” that were considered a necessary part of a healthy, well-balanced meal…. I think it’s interesting that when YHWH delivered the children of Israel from Egypt, they were commanded to eat the Passover meal “with bitter herbs.” After so long in slavery, and so much physical and psychological pollution from living in a culture of unclean practices– orgies to worship idols, hideous oppression, and unclean food all around, it may be that they needed those bitter herbs to help them heal and detoxify their bodies for the trek they had ahead of them!
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail119.php

Dandelion Root Beautiful blood & liver purifier– also good as a salad green when they’re young & tender. I’ve used milk thistle seeds, rinsed & soaked overnight, and swallowed in the morning to alleviate liver pains, but I’m told dandelion root works well, too.
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail92.php
www.herbalremediesinfo.com/Dandelion.html

Valerian Root Reduces anxiety, mild sedative. I like St John’s Wort tincture better, but different bodies react differently. The St. John’s wort is more about breaking down uric acid, which is helpful in conditions involving joint pains along with the nerve-soothing effects.
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail117.php
www.herbalremediesinfo.com/Valerian.html

Beet Great for digestion that needs a bit more HCl. The natural red dye in beets is GREAT for Gout symptoms, especially.
www.thespringoflife.net/beetroot.html

Maca This one I’ve only used a couple of times, but I loved it when I had it– my body seems to respond well to everything in the brassica family (broccoli, collards, kale, etc.). I’ve also seen it as a tool in the basket, along with wild yam root, of a friend who was concerned about losing her pregnancy. She has a gorgeous, healthy baby now. Traditional usage of it for that purpose in both man and beast ranges from ancient to modern times in South America. Both Maca and Wild Yam Root have been accused of being the “mandrakes” that Rachel bought from her sister in order to be able to conceive. I can’t verify that, but the concept that a root of some sort should be medicinal for infertility has been a “good direction” for me in finding more help along my healing path, and I’ve seen other women benefit from this general “pointing the way,” whether they’d connected it to Torah or not.
www.medicine-plants.com/articles/36/
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail251.php

Marshmallow Great for coughs and sore throats.
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail133.php
www.herbalremediesinfo.com/MarshmallowRoot.html

Licorice Great digestive aid & soothing to the alimentary canal
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail102.php

Black & Blue Cohosh Both great womens’ remedies for miscellaneous needs… consult your midwife for appropriate timing &/ or homeopathic preparations.
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail67.php
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail88.php

Burdock This one doubles as a Thistle. It’s similar to Dandelion: a great blood & liver purifier & tonic.
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail65.php
www.herbalremediesinfo.com/Burdock.html

Ginseng Great for energy, circulation, and the immune system
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail68.php

Goldenseal This one has been a life-saver on multiple occasions– most notably in major cuts (that *technically should’ve been stitched). We’ve had doctors particularly impressed with the results. Great for killing infections of all sorts!
www.anniesremedy.com/herb_detail155.php
www.herbalremediesinfo.com/Goldenseal.html

Dong Quai Another ladies’ remedy. Great for menstrual cramps. I wouldn’t use it during pregnancy. I like the flavor of ginger tea better, so I tend to go for a quart of hot ginger rather than the Dong Quai, but I’ve seen good effects from both. Eliminating every trace of sugar and dairy from my diet has been immensely useful there, too.
www.naturalherbsguide.com/dong-quai.html

These roots are only scratching the surface. Take these “pointers” from Torah, and see where they might lead you!

Standard Disclaimer:

I’m  no doc, and don’t pretend to be one. I am therefore not legally licensed to diagnose, cure, treat, prevent, or otherwise mitigate any disease, and neither is the stuff I generally choose for healing… but then, I’ve not been educated indoctrinated by boards with big pharma reps on them, either   so do your own research and find what works for you